Removing slamming protection to permit a change in service providers

ABSTRACT

A designated service provider of a customer having slamming protection on their account may not be changed without authorization from the customer to remove the slamming protection. When a customer&#39;s telephone company receives a request to change the customer&#39;s long distance provider and subsequently determines that the customer has slamming protection on their account, the telephone company notifies the requester that the requested change may not be provisioned due to the slamming protection. The customer&#39;s authorization to remove the slamming protection is provided by the requester in the form of an audio file that is reviewed by the telephone company. If the telephone company or an agent of the telephone company listens to the audio file and approves the request, then the customer&#39;s slamming protection is removed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is related to the field of telecommunications.More particularly, the present invention relates to removing slammingprotection from a customer's account when the customer wants to changetheir preferred long distance provider.

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

2. Acronyms

-   Ameritech Service Order Negotiation (ASON)-   Billing Telephone Number (BTN)-   Carrier Identification Code (CIC)-   Carrier Request (CR)-   Customer Account Record Exchange (CARE)-   Electronic 3-Way Call (E3WC)-   Extensible Markup Language (XML)-   Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-   File Transport Protocol (FTP)-   Graphical User Interface (GUI)-   Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)-   Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)-   Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)-   Interactive Voice Response (IVR)-   Local Access and Transport Area (LATA)-   Local Exchange Carrier (LEC)-   Local Preferred Interexchange Carrier (LPIC)-   Multiple Virtual Storage (MVS)-   Preferred Interexchange Carrier (PIC)-   Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)-   Service Order Server Applications (SOSA)-   Telephone Number (TN)-   Third Party Verification (TPV)-   Uniform Resource Locator (URL)-   Working Telephone Number (WTN)

3. Background and Material Information

In the past, if a potential customer consented to a change in their longdistance carrier, then the long distance carrier would contact thecustomer's local telephone company to provision the change. Eventually,however, certain long distance companies began contacting localtelephone companies and indicating that a potential customer hadauthorized a change in their long distance carrier, when in fact no suchconsent was granted by the customer. Ignorant of the falsehood, thecustomer's local telephone company would change the service asinstructed by the carrier and the customer would receive service andincur charges from the newly provisioned long distance provider. Thisillegal practice eventually became known as slamming. In response to theadvent of slamming, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopteda requirement that the new service provider must first obtain thirdparty verification (TPV) before a customer is switched to a new longdistance carrier. The TPV is recorded and performed by an entitydistinct from the long distance carrier and serves to verify that thecustomer consents to the change.

Thus, when a long distance carrier makes a sale to a customer, a TPV isperformed and a recording is made of the telephone conversation. Then,the long distance provider submits a request to change the customer'slong distance provider. If the customer has slamming protection on theiraccount, then the local telephone company may not provision the changein long distance providers and notifies the long distance provideraccordingly.

As a result, the long distance carrier will typically contact thecustomer and request that the customer contact their local telephonecompany and indicate that slamming protection be removed from theiraccount. Alternatively, a three-way call may be attempted between thecustomer, the long distance provider, and the local telephone company.Often, a customer cannot be reached or does not have time to contacttheir local phone company. This is especially true when attempting toschedule a three-way call. In any event, the resulting frustration mayresult in lost sales for the carrier.

Therefore, it would be advantageous to automate and streamline theprocess of removing slamming protection from a customer's account whenthe customer wants to change their preferred long distance provider.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is further described in the detailed descriptionthat follows, by reference to the noted drawings by way of non-limitingexamples of embodiments of the present invention, in which likereference numerals represent similar parts throughout several views ofthe drawings, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an exemplary telecommunicationsnetwork, according to an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary flow diagram, according to an aspect of thepresent invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an exemplary telecommunicationsnetwork, according to an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary request record, according to an aspect of thepresent invention;

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary disposition record, according to an aspect ofthe present invention; and

FIG. 6 is an exemplary web page, according to an aspect of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The present invention relates to an automated, streamlined process forallowing a customer to remove slamming protection from their accountwhen they would like to change their long distance provider. Slammingprotection, also known as a preferred interexchange carrier (PIC)freeze, prevents a customer's long distance provider from being changed.The customer's PIC provides the customer's long distance service forinter-LATA calls. Related thereto, a local preferred interexchangecarrier (LPIC), provides the customer's local toll service forintra-LATA calls. Thus, the term long distance carrier/provider, as usedherein, includes both PICs and LPICs. In addition, the terms longdistance provider, long distance carrier, and service provider are usedinterchangeably herein. Further, the terms telephone company, localtelephone company, and telco are used interchangeably herein.

In view of the above, the present invention through one or more of itsvarious aspects and/or embodiments is presented to accomplish one ormore objectives and advantages, such as those noted below.

Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention is to provide a methodfor removing a protection associated with a customer's account thatprevents a change of the customer's service provider. The methodincludes receiving a request to remove the protection from thecustomer's account, wherein the request includes an audio file thatincludes the customer's authorization to remove the protection. Themethod further includes listening to the customer's authorization in theaudio file and determining whether to remove the protection. Then, theprotection is removed when the determination indicates that theprotection is to be removed.

The audio file including the customer's authorization may be referencedby a hyperlink associated with the audio file. The protection associatedwith the customer's account includes slamming protection and the serviceprovider may be the customer's preferred interexchange carrier (PIC)and/or the customer's local preferred interexchange carrier (LPIC).

Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a method forremoving a protection associated with a customer's account that preventsa change of the customer's service provider. The method includesreceiving a request to change the customer's service provider anddetermining that the requested change cannot be provisioned due to theprotection associated with the customer's account. In response to thedetermination, notification is provided that the change cannot beprovisioned without the customer authorizing removal of the protection.Then, the customer's authorization to remove the protection is receivedand reviewed and a decision is made as to whether to remove theprotection based upon the review of the customer's authorization.

If approved, the protection associated with the customer's account maybe removed, thereby enabling the customer's service provider to bechanged. In addition, a disposition notice may be sent in response to aresolution as to whether to remove the protection.

The protection associated with the customer's account includes slammingprotection and the service provider may be the customer's PIC and/orLPIC.

The request may include customer account information and the customer'sauthorization to remove the protection may be accessed via a hyperlinkassociated with an audio file.

Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a method forremoving slamming protection from a customer's account when the customerhas requested a service provider change. The method includes presentinga script to the customer that solicits at least one response from thecustomer including whether the customer authorizes the removal ofslamming protection from the customer' account. In addition, the methodincludes recording and storing the script and the at least one customerresponse and then sending a request via the Internet requesting that theslamming protection be removed from the customer's account. The requestincludes a link associated with an audio file that contains therecording of the customer's authorization to remove the slammingprotection.

The request may be sent in response to a rejection received from thecustomer's local telephone company to change the service provider of thecustomer. The rejection is reviewed and notification of the rejectionmay be submitted to a third party verification vendor. In this case, thethird party verification vendor receives the notification and reviewsthe customer's authorization. In addition, the third party verificationvendor may edit the audio file.

The request may be sent by the service provider, which may be thecustomer's PIC and/or LPIC. Otherwise, the request may be sent by athird party verification vendor.

Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a system forremoving a protection preventing the change of a customer's serviceprovider without authorization of the customer. The system includes aserver that receives a request to remove the protection, in which therequest includes a link to an audio file of the customer authorizing theremoval of the protection. The system also includes a database thatstores customer information and compares the information associated withthe request against the stored customer information. Also, a client isprovided that activates the link causing the audio file to play. Thesystem may also include a computer that generates an order to remove theprotection.

Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a method foreffecting a change associated with a customer's account in which thechange requires a verbal authorization of the customer. The methodincludes receiving a request to effect a change on the customer'saccount, in which the request includes an audio file containing thecustomer's authorization to effect the change and referencing the audiofile by a hyperlink associated with the audio file. The method furtherincludes listening to the customer's authorization in the audio file anddetermining whether to effect the change and effecting the change whenthe determination indicates that the change should be effected.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an exemplary telecommunicationsnetwork, according to an aspect of the present invention. A longdistance provider 10 communicates through a communications network suchas the public switched telephone network (PSTN) 12 with a customer 15.The means of communication between the long distance provider 10 and thecustomer 15 is not limited to the PSTN 12 and may include, for example,communications such as internet telephony. The long distance provider 10attempts to acquire the prospective business of the customer 15. If thelong distance provider successfully markets itself and makes a sale toprovide future long distance services to the customer 15, then TPV isperformed by a TPV vendor 20, on behalf of the long distance provider10, in accordance with FCC requirements.

Thus, the customer 15 is transferred to the TPV vendor 20 and the longdistance provider 10 is disconnected from the call with the customer 15.Depending upon regulations, the long distance provider 10 may remain onthe line while the TPV is performed. In any event, the TPV is performedby the TPV vendor 20 using an interactive voice response (IVR) system.Otherwise, the TPV may be conducted by a live operator of the TPV vendor20. Whether an IVR or live operator is used by the TPV vendor 20, TPV isperformed and in doing so, a recording (e.g., an audio recording) ismade of the exchange between the TPV vendor 20 and the customer 15, toverify the customer's desire to change carriers.

In addition, a script is presented to the customer 15 asking for consentto remove slamming protection from their account in order to change thecustomer's current long distance provider. The script is typicallyperformed by the TPV vendor; however, the long distance provider 10 mayperform this function in which case the long distance provider 10 mustbe re-connected with the customer 15. In presenting the script to thecustomer 15, certain identifying information is elicited from thecustomer, e.g., name, social security number, date of birth, telephonenumber in which change will be made, whether the customer 15 isauthorized to order that the slamming protection be removed from theaccount, whether the customer consents to the having a recording of thetelephone call sent to the telephone company 25, etc. This is known asthe electronic 3-way call (E3WC) process script. Further, the name ofthe new long distance provider may be included in the script that ispresented to the customer 15. The E3WC script presented to the customer15, along with the customer's responses are recorded and stored on a webserver. The web server storing the script and response may be located,for example, at the long distance provider 10 or the TPV vendor 20.Thus, an E3WC is performed and in doing so, a recording (e.g., an audiorecording) is made of the exchange between the TPV vendor 20 and thecustomer 15, for the approval to remove the slamming protection on thecustomer's 15 account.

If the E3WC script is performed by the TPV vendor 20, then the TPVvendor 20 may make a cropped recording of the original recordingremoving, for example, the TPV pertaining to the change of providers. Inthis case, the cropped recording is stored on a web server as notedabove.

The telephone company 25 receives requests from the long distanceprovider 10 to change a customer's PIC and/or LPIC. These requests arereceived via the known customer account record exchange (CARE) or otherknown manner. CARE is a system that facilitates the exchange of customeraccount information between telecommunications entities in order toprovision services. Essentially, CARE provides a consistent definitionand data format for the exchange of common data elements. If thecustomer 15 has slamming protection on their account, then the telephonecompany 25 would be unable to process the request to change thecustomer's PIC and/or LPIC for reasons previously discussed. As aresult, the telephone company 25 sends a message via CARE to the longdistance provider 10 indicating that the request to change thecustomer's PIC and/or LPIC has been rejected (as will be discussed inmore detail below) and that the customer 15 has slamming protection ontheir account, an indication that the potential customer's consent toremove slamming protection must be provided.

Thereafter, and as will be explained in more detail below, the longdistance provider 10 or the TPV vendor 20 provides the telephone company25 with customer account information and a uniform resource locator(URL) hyperlink that references an audio file (i.e., E3WC) of theexchange between the customer 15 and the TPV vendor 20. The hyperlinkmay employ, for example, the hypertext markup language (HTML), theextensible markup language (XML), or any equivalents.

The audio file purportedly contains the customer's consent to remove thePIC and/or LPIC slamming protection. Then, once an agent of thetelephone company 25 reviews the audio recording, a decision is made asto whether to approve or deny the request to remove the slammingprotection. If the request is approved, a service order is generated bythe telephone company 25 and the slamming protection is removed. In anyevent, a disposition file is sent to the long distance provider 10and/or the TPV vendor 20 advising the recipient of the disposition.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary flow diagram, according to an aspect of thepresent invention. At step S200, a representative of the long distanceprovider 10, in communication with the customer 15 receives verbalindication from the customer 15 that the customer 15 would like toswitch their long distance service to the provider of therepresentative.

At step S202, TPV is performed and a recording is made of the exchangebetween the TPV vendor 20 and the customer 15, including the script andresponses. As discussed, the TPV vendor 20 follows the TPV process witha script asking the customer for consent to remove slamming protectionfrom their account in order to change the long distance provider, thusperforming an initial portion of an E3WC.

An exemplary script employed by an IVR or operator of the TPV vendor 20may include “Please identify yourself by name, social security number,and/or date of birth”. In addition, the customer 15 may be asked whetherthey are authorized to request that slamming protection be removed fromthe account and whether they consent to have the conversation recorded.After the customer 15 provides the requested information, the exemplaryscript may continue as follows: “If you have slamming protection on youraccount, do you consent to have the protection removed so that your longdistance provider may be changed?” In addition, the name of the longdistance provider and/or any other relevant information may be includedin the script.

At step S204, the long distance provider 10 submits a request to thetelephone company 25 to change the customer's PIC and/or LPIC. At stepS206, the telephone company 25 receives the request and determines thatthe customer 15 has slamming protection on their account. If no slammingprotection exists on the customer's account, then the requested changemay be provisioned by known processes.

It is noted that in some jurisdictions, customers may have an option ofplacing slamming protection on their account. With slamming protectionon the account, the telephone company 25 is prohibited from processingthe request to change the PIC and/or LPIC without the customer'sconsent. As a result, at step S208, the telephone company 25 sends arejection record with a “2166” transaction code to the long distanceprovider 10. A “2166” transaction code indicates that changing of thePIC/LPIC is restricted and thus, no carrier initiated PIC and/or LPICchanges will be accepted for processing by the telephone company 25.

At step S210 the long distance provider 10 receives the rejection record(i.e., “2166”) due to slamming protection on the customer's account andsubmits notification of rejected records to the TPV vendor 20, dependingupon the arrangement between the long distance provider 10 and the TPVvendor 20. If notification is submitted to the TPV vendor 20, then itmay include a list of the records that were rejected over a certainperiod of time (e.g., in a given day). Alternatively, notification maybe provided to the TPV vendor 20 one record at a time. Based on the listof rejected records due to slamming protection, at step S212 the TPVvendor 20 reviews the previously made recordings (i.e., E3WC recordings)of the customer's consent and verifies the customer's 15 approval toremove the slamming protection. At this point, if the TPV vendor 20 hadnot done so previously, the TPV vendor 20 may make a cropped recordingof the original recording, as previously discussed.

At step S214 the long distance provider 10, or the TPV vendor 20 actingunder direction of the long distance provider 10, sends a file to thetelephone company 25 with account information and a link (e.g., URLhyperlink) to the original or cropped recording, (i.e., E3WC recording),as the case may be. Alternatively, the file includes account informationand links for a plurality of customers. At step S216, the telephonecompany 25 receives the file and checks to see if the customer has anaccount with the telephone company 25. If the telephone company 25receives account information and links for a plurality of customers, therequests may be processed individually. If the customer 15 does not havean account with the telephone company, the request is rejected at stepS220 and a disposition file is sent to the long distance provider 10 atstep S236. If the customer 15 is determined to be an account holder atstep S218, then a determination is made at step S222 as to whether thecustomer 15 has slamming protection. If the customer 15 does not haveslamming protection, the request is rejected at step S224 and adisposition file is sent to the long distance provider 10 at step S236.In this case, the long distance provider 10 may resubmit a request tochange the customer's PIC and/or LPIC through known processes. If thecustomer 15 is determined to have slamming protection at step S222, thenthe telephone company 25 (or an agent thereof) reviews the E3WCrecording at step S226. If the agent denies the request at step s228(for reasons discussed below), then the request is rejected at step S230and a disposition file is sent to the long distance provider 10 at stepS236. If the agent approves the request at step S228, then a serviceorder is generated at step S232. The service order removes the slammingprotection from the customer's account at step S234. In alternativeembodiments, at step S234, the service order may provision any serviceor function that requires customer consent. At step S236, a dispositionfile is sent to the long distance provider 10 and/or the TPV vendor 20notifying the recipient of the disposition, thus completing the E3WC.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary telecommunications network, according to oneaspect of the present invention. The network includes an internet webserver 50, an FTP server 55, the Internet 60, a telephone companyintranet 65, a customer care ordering system 70, a database server 75,an intranet web server 80, and desktops used by the reviewer 85. Theinternet web server 50 may comprise any known server that supportshypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). The FTP server 55 may comprise anyknown server that supports standard FTP. The customer care orderingsystem 70 comprises, for example, an IBM legacy mainframe on a multiplevirtual storage (MVS) operating system. The database server 75comprises, for example, an Intel Zeon Multi-Processor on a Windows 2000Server operating system and runs the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 databasemanagement system. The intranet web server 80 comprises, for example, anIntel Zeon Multi-Processor on a Windows 2000 Server operating system andruns Microsoft Internet Information Server. Each reviewer 85 comprises,for example, an Intel Desktop on a Windows NT/2000 operating system andruns Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0. Those skilled in the art willappreciate that the present invention may also be implemented onhardware, operating systems, database management systems, and softwareother than those mentioned.

The internet web server 50 may be operated by the long distance provider10 and/or the TPV vendor 20. In the alternative, it may be operated bythe telephone company 25 or an agent thereof. The internet web server 50stores the E3WC audio recordings of the script and responses that arecreated by the TPV vendor 20. That is, the audio files recorded by theTPV vendor 20 reside on the internet web server 50. The FTP server 55may be owned by the telephone company 25 and permits an exchange offiles between the telephone company 25 and the long distance provider 10and/or the TPV vendor 20 over the Internet 60. The telephone company 25also has a firewall (not shown) and a gateway (not shown) locatedbetween the Internet 60 and the telephone company intranet 65. Thecustomer care ordering system 70 maintains the records of the telephonecompany's customers. The customer care ordering system 70 receivesrequests from the long distance provider 10 and/or the TPV vendor 20 andcompares the data within the requests against the customer recordsstored in a database. Further, the customer care ordering system 70generates service orders in situations where the customer's slammingprotection is to be removed.

The database server 75 stores requests from the long distance provider10 and/or the TPV vendor 20, in response to a “2166” rejection, askingthe telephone company 25 to remove a customer's slamming protection. Theintranet web server 80 stores the web page that allows the reviewer 85to access and listen to the recordings made by the TPV vendor 20, aswell as approve or deny requests to remove a customer's slammingprotection. The reviewer 85 uses a graphical user interface (GUI) ondesktops, for instance, to click on an icon to listen to the audiorecording. In addition, all of the account information associated withthe recording is displayed on the GUI. An approval by the reviewer 85 istransmitted via the telephone company intranet 65 to the customer careordering system 70 where a service order is prepared. Batch jobs areperiodically run throughout each day to execute the service orders. Inaddition, the reviewer 85 sends a disposition file (as will be discussedlater) to the FTP server 55 where it may be reviewed by the longdistance provider 10 and/or the TPV vendor 20. In this regard, thetelephone company 25 may send one file, at the end of each day forinstance, reflecting all of the dispositions for that day.

A file containing account information and a URL link to respectiverecording files is sent to the telephone company 25 via a secured FTPconnection at predetermined intervals, e.g., daily. Security of therecording files is embedded in the URL either through the use of asecured connection (i.e., https://) or through the passing of securitytokens, in a known manner. To achieve the security of the recordingfiles, the telephone company 25 will provide the sender with the IPaddress and/or host name of the designated FTP server, as well as anaccount name and password. Each record in the file represents a requestto remove slamming protection from the specified account. An exemplaryrecord is illustrated in FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary record sent from a long distance provider tothe telephone company. The record 400, a carrier request (CR) filedefinition, includes a position column 401, a format column 402, adescription column 403, and a CARE position column 404. The positioncolumn 401 indicates the positions within the record (ie., the positionof the bytes associated with a field) that a particular variable islocated. The format column 402 indicates the type and length of the databeing transmitted. That is, an “X” indicates that an alphanumeric valuemust be populated and a “9” indicates that a numeric value must bepopulated. The length in “( )” indicates the number of characters thevalue may hold.

The description column 403 identifies the element corresponding to theposition and format in columns 401 and 402, respectively. The CAREposition column 404 indicates the positions where the data may belocated in an original CARE record submitted to the telephone company tochange the customer's long distance carrier, only to have the requestrejected due to the existence of slamming protection on the account. Therecord 400 may also contain other information, which may or may notinclude the “2166” transaction code from the reject record, asidentified in step S204 in FIG. 2.

Rows 405 and 406 include the four character alphanumeric identificationcodes of the long distance carrier and the local exchange carrier,respectively. Row 407 identifies the ten digit working telephone number(WTN) of the customer 15. Row 408 includes a one character alphanumericjurisdictional indicator that identifies whether the request pertains toan intraLATA LPIC change (value=A) or an interLATA PIC change (value=E).In addition, the telephone company 25 may arrange an agreement with thelong distance provider 10 and/or TPV vendor 20 so that other values maybe populated. For instance, a “B” may be populated in the row 408 as aconvenience to the long distance provider 10, in which case the recordscontaining a “B” would be split into separate intraLATA and interLATArecords.

Row 409 includes a 6 digit date (in yymmdd format) as found on thetelephone company's “2166” rejection record that was previously sent tothe long distance provider 10. Row 410 includes a one characteralphanumeric designation as to whether the recorded file is in English(value=E) or Spanish (value=S). Row 411 is reserved for a one characteralphanumeric value that will be populated by the telephone company 25with a disposition code in response to the CR file definition. Row 412is reserved for future use for a value not exceeding seventy-threealphanumeric characters. Row 413 is reserved for a variable length URLof unlimited length that points to the TPV vendor's recording file,associated with the particular account (i.e., WTN) identified in the CRfile definition.

Referring to row 413, the URL is a variable length field to accommodateURLs of any length. Via the URL, the provider of the recording iscapable of specifying not only the location of the recording, theprotocol, the recording format, and the access method.

The E3WC recording may comprise any suitable format including, but notlimited to known formats such as .wav, mpg, .wma, .au, .aiff, .mpa,.gsm, .vmf, .ra, .vox, etc. Further, the technology used to provideaccess to the recordings may include, but is not limited to CGI, ASP,DLL, htm, JavaScript, etc. While the TPV vendor 20 may allow directaccess to its sound files (e.g., https://www.nameoffile.wav), it mayalso have an intermediate layer of software as a means of preventingunlimited access to its data. Thus, the file may be accessed by passinga dynamic parameter (e.g., the WTN or tn, for short) from one page toanother by appending the parameter to the URL reference of the targetpage. As is known, parameters may be passed with a URL by appending thename of the variable that is being passed and its associated value,separated by a “?”. For instance, an exemplary URL that may be providedis shown as follows:https://www.tpvvendor.com/retrieverecording.cgi?tn=1234567890. In thisexample, the hyperlink passes a variable named “tn” with a value of1234567890. While this URL does not directly reference the .wav file, itdetermines the location of the file and presents it to the user, in thiscase, to the reviewer 85.

When the reviewer 85 references the URL (ie., by clicking on an icon,for instance), the URL causes the recording to be opened and playedusing the default media player associated with the file extension or bya custom interface defined by the TPV vendor 20. For example, the URLcould cause the browser to open a new pop up window that provides acustom or embedded media player, or any other player that allows a userto listen and perform basic functions such as play, pause, stop, fastforward, and rewind.

At predetermined intervals (e.g., daily) the telephone company 25 sendsa file, via a secured FTP connection, to the long distance provider 10or TPV vendor 20 reflecting the dispositions of all of the recordsprocessed during the interval. Thus, the long distance carrier 10 or TPVvendor 20 must provide the IP address and/or host name of theirdesignated FTP server, as well as an account name and password.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary record sent from the telephone company to thelong distance provider. The record 500, a CR disposition file definitionlayout, is identical to the record shown in FIG. 4, except that adisposition code is no longer reserved, but would be populated by anappropriate disposition code in row 511. Due to the correspondencebetween FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, the various elements in FIG. 5 will not bediscussed again for the sake of brevity. Exemplary disposition codes areprovided in TABLE 1 below and discussed thereafter.

TABLE 1 CODE INDICATION EXPLANATION 0 Processed Slamming protection hasbeen removed 1 Invalid Account Customer is not an account holder 2 TollRestriction Customer has toll restriction on account 3 No SlammingSlamming protection not on account Protection 4 Inaudible All or part ofrecording is inaudible 5 Invalid Script Standard script not used 6Invalid Information Information does not match customer 7 CustomerDenied Customer denied request

Specifically, a disposition code of “0” indicates that slammingprotection has been removed from the account by the telephone company25. A disposition code of “1” indicates an invalid account condition,meaning that the customer is not a customer of the telephone company 25,for instance. A disposition code of “2” indicates that the customer 15has toll restriction on the account, meaning that the customer 15 hasblocked the ability to dial long distance telephone calls from thespecified WTN. A disposition code of “3” indicates that no slammingprotection exists on the account. A disposition code of “4” indicatesthat all or a portion of the recording is inaudible. A disposition codeof “5” indicates an invalid script, meaning that the E3WC scriptemployed by the TPV vendor 20 was inappropriate or otherwiseunacceptable. A disposition code of “6” indicates that the informationprovided about the customer 15 does not match the account records. Forinstance, a telephone number or social security number recorded in theaudio file do not match those listed in the customer's account stored atthe customer care ordering system 70. A disposition code of “7”indicates that the customer denied authorization to remove slammingprotection from the account, e.g., the recording was not an explicitconsent by the customer to remove the slamming protection.

FIG. 6 is an exemplary web page according to an aspect of the presentinvention. The web page 600 permits access to customer accountinformation that is stored at the customer care ordering system 70 andrequest information that is stored at the database server 75.

The web page 600 includes a billing telephone identifier (BTN) 601 and acustomer identifier 602 that identify customer specific information. Alocal exchange carrier (LEC) identifier 603 and a carrier identificationcode (CIC) identifier 604 identify the telephone company 25 and the longdistance carrier 10, respectively. A telephone number (TN) column 605provides the WTN and a jurisdiction column 606 indicates whether therequest pertains to an intra-LATA LPIC or inter-LATA PIC request. A datecolumn provides the date of the request in column 607. When a request isapproved, a check is placed in column 608 by the reviewer 85. In theevent that a request is denied, the reason for the denial is indicatedusing a drop down menu in column 609.

A listen icon 610 is linked to the URL of the audio file in a knownmanner such that, when clicked, it causes a pop-up window (not shown) tobe displayed to the reviewer 85 and also activates the audio file. Thatis, the recording begins to play. In addition, the pop-up windowincludes play, pause, stop, fast forward, and rewind functions so thatthe reviewer 85 may control the recording as needed. A message window611 includes customer identifying information.

In operation, when a representative of long distance provider 10 makes asale to the customer 15 the call is transferred to the TPV vendor 20. AnIVR at the TPV vendor 20 performs TPV and runs an E3WC script in amanner previously discussed. In the alternative, as stated earlier, thelong distance provider 10 may run the E3WC script. After the script andresponses have been recorded, the TPV vendor 20 disconnects thetelephone call with the customer 15.

Thereafter, the TPV vendor 20 may notify the long distance provider 10,in a known manner, that the TPV has been completed. Next, the longdistance provider 10 submits a request to the telephone company 25 tochange the customer's PIC and/or LPIC. This request is typically sentvia CARE, in a known manner.

From there, the customer care ordering system 70 accesses the request,performs a look up in its database, and determines that the WTNassociated with the request has slamming protection. As a result, thecustomer care ordering system 70 dispatches a “2166” rejection recordvia CARE using known processes, if the account has slamming protectionon it.

Based on the list of rejected records, the TPV vendor 20 retrieves therejection records, either directly or with the support of the longdistance provider 10. Then, the TPV vendor 20 or long distance provider10, for each “2166” record, reviews the previously made E3WC recordingsof the customer's consent and verifies the potential customer's 15approval to remove the slamming protection.

The TPV vendor 20 then sends a CR file definition (or multiple CR filedefinitions) over the Internet 60 to the FTP server 55; although, thistransmission may originate from the long distance provider 10. The CRfile definition contains customer account information and a link (e.g.,URL hyperlink) to the E3WC recording made by the TPV vendor 20.Thereafter, the telephone company 25 accesses the CR file definitionthat is stored on the FTP server 55 and through the telephone companyintranet 65 stores the request on the database server 75. The request(or requests) are time stamped to reflect the original date of the“2166” record, the date of receipt of the CR file definition, and thetime that the record was stored on the database server 75.

Then, the customer care ordering system 70 accesses the CR filedefinition via the telephone company intranet 65 and compares eachrecord to the corresponding customer records stored in its database. Ifa corresponding customer record is not located in the database, then thecustomer care ordering system 70 sends a message indicating thiscondition through the telephone company intranet 65 and the Internet 60to the FTP server 55 where it may be reviewed by the long distanceprovider 10 and/or the TPV vendor 20.

Otherwise, if a corresponding customer record is located, then adetermination is made as to whether the customer has slamming protectionon their account. If no slamming protection exists on the account, thenthe customer care ordering system 70 sends a message indicating thiscondition through the telephone company intranet 65 and the Internet 60to the FTP server 55 where it may be reviewed by the long distanceprovider 10 and/or the TPV vendor 20. If a corresponding customer recordis located in the customer care ordering system 70 and the customer isdetermined to have slamming protection on their account, then thecustomer care ordering system 70 sends a message through the telephonecompany intranet 65 to the reviewer 85 indicating which CR filedefinition records to access so that respective audio files may bereviewed.

The reviewer 85, accessing the web page 600 stored on the intranet webserver 80, listens to the respective sound files identified by thecustomer care ordering system 70. The reviewer 85 has access to thesefiles through the database server 75 via the telephone company intranet65. By clicking on the listen icon 610, the reviewer 85 listens to theE3WC recordings, as previously discussed. If the reviewer 85 denies therequest, then a rejection message is sent from the reviewer 85 via thetelephone company intranet 65 through the Internet 60 to the FTP server55 where it may be reviewed by the long distance provider 10 and/or theTPV vendor 20.

An approval by the reviewer 85 is transmitted via the telephone companyintranet 65 to the customer care ordering system 70 where a serviceorder is prepared. Then, the reviewer 85 sends a disposition file viathe telephone company intranet 65 through the Internet 60 to the FTPserver 55 where it may be reviewed by the long distance provider 10and/or the TPV vendor 20.

The service order contains a list of telephone numbers for whichslamming protection is to be removed and an indication of whether toremove the PIC and/or LPIC protection. The service order instructs thatthe slamming protection be removed from the customer's account. That is,a program reads the service order and executes the instructionscontained in the service order to remove the slamming protection. In oneembodiment, the service order is sent via FTP to a Unix-based serviceorder server applications (SOSA) system which reads the service orderand inputs an order into the Ameritech Service Order Negotiation (ASON)subsystem to remove the slamming protection. Then, the ASON sends asuccess or failure notification message to the customer care orderingsystem 70 as appropriate. Alternatively, the slamming protection may beremoved by other, known processes.

Once the customer's slamming protection has been removed, the customer'sdesignated long distance carrier may resubmit a request to the telephonecompany 25 to change the customer's PIC and/or LPIC. If appropriate, adatabase in a switch servicing the customer is changed to reflect thedesired change in service. Thereafter, the slamming protection may bereinstated on the account, for instance, at the request of the customeror other known processes.

Although the invention has been described with reference to severalexemplary embodiments, it is understood that the words that have beenused are words of description and illustration, rather than words oflimitation. Changes may be made within the purview of the appendedclaims, as presently stated and as amended, without departing from thescope and spirit of the invention in its aspects. Although the inventionhas been described with reference to particular means, materials andembodiments, the invention is not intended to be limited to theparticulars disclosed; rather, the invention extends to all functionallyequivalent structures, methods, and uses such as are within the scope ofthe appended claims.

In accordance with various embodiments of the present invention, themethods described herein are intended for operation as software programsrunning on a computer processor. Dedicated hardware implementationsincluding, but not limited to, application specific integrated circuits,programmable logic arrays and other hardware devices can likewise beconstructed to implement the methods described herein. Furthermore,alternative software implementations including, but not limited to,distributed processing or component/object distributed processing,parallel processing, or virtual machine processing can also beconstructed to implement the methods described herein.

It should also be noted that the software implementations of the presentinvention as described herein are optionally stored on a tangiblestorage medium, such as: a magnetic medium such as a disk or tape; amagneto-optical or optical medium such as a disk; or a solid statemedium such as a memory card or other package that houses one or moreread-only (non-volatile) memories, random access memories, or otherre-writable (volatile) memories. A digital file attachment to email orother self-contained information archive or set of archives isconsidered a distribution medium equivalent to a tangible storagemedium. Accordingly, the invention is considered to include a tangiblestorage medium or distribution medium, as listed herein and includingart-recognized equivalents and successor media, in which the softwareimplementations herein are stored.

Although the present specification describes components and functionsimplemented in the embodiments with reference to particular standardsand protocols, the invention is not limited to such standards andprotocols. Each of the standards for Internet and other packet-switchednetwork transmission (e.g., HTML, XML, FTP) represent examples of thestate of the art. Such standards are periodically superseded by fasteror more efficient equivalents having essentially the same functions.Accordingly, replacement standards and protocols having the samefunctions are considered equivalents.

1. A method for removing a protection associated with an account of acustomer that prevents a change of a service provider of the customer,comprising: receiving a first request from a prospective serviceprovider to effect a change on the customer's account; determining thatthe change may not be effected without authorization of the customer;notifying the prospective service provider that the change may not beeffected without authorization of the customer; receiving a secondrequest from the prospective service provider of the customer to removethe protection associated with the customer's account, the secondrequest including an electronic address of an audio file comprising acustomer's authorization to remove the protection; determining whetherto remove the protection; and removing the protection when thedetermining indicates that the protection is to be removed.
 2. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the audio file is referenced by ahyperlink associated with the audio file.
 3. The method according toclaim 1, wherein the protection comprises slamming protection.
 4. Themethod according to claim 3, wherein the service provider comprises apreferred interexchange carrier (PIC) of the customer.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 3, wherein the service provider comprises a localpreferred interexchange carrier (LPIC) of the customer.
 6. A method forremoving a protection associated with an account of a customer thatprevents a change of a current service provider of the customer,comprising: receiving a request from a prospective service provider ofthe customer to change the customer's current service provider;determining that the requested change cannot be provisioned due to theprotection associated with the customer's account; providingnotification to the prospective service provider that the change cannotbe provisioned without the customer authorizing removal of theprotection, in response to the determination; receiving an electronicaddress of an audio file from the prospective service provider;determining whether the customer authorized removing the protection; andsending a disposition notice to the prospective service provider inresponse to the determination as to whether the customer authorizedremoval of the protection.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprisingremoving the protection associated with the customer's account, therebyenabling the customer's service provider to be changed.
 8. The methodaccording to claim 6, wherein the service provider comprises a preferredinterexchange carrier (PIC) of the customer.
 9. The method according toclaim 6, wherein the service provider comprises a local preferredinterexchange carrier (LPIC) of the customer.
 10. The method accordingto claim 6, wherein the request includes customer account information.11. The method according to claim 6, wherein authorization of thecustomer to remove the protection is accessed via a hyperlink associatedwith an audio file.
 12. The method according to claim 6, wherein theprotection comprises slamming protection.
 13. A method for removingslamming protection from an account of a customer when the customer hasrequested a service provider change, comprising: presenting a script tothe customer that solicits at least one response from the customerincluding whether the customer authorizes removal of slamming protectionfrom the customer's account; recording and storing the script and the atleast one customer response; and sending a request via the Internetrequesting that the slamming protection be removed from the customer'saccount, the request including a link associated with an audio file thatcontains the recording of a customer's authorization to remove theslamming protection, the request being sent in response to a rejectionreceived from a customer's local telephone company to change a serviceprovider of the customer, notification of the rejection having beenpreviously submitted to a sender of the request.
 14. The methodaccording to claim 13, wherein a third party verification vendorreceives the notification and reviews the customer's authorization. 15.The method according to claim 13, wherein a third party verificationvendor edits the audio file.
 16. The method according to claim 13,wherein the service provider comprises a preferred interexchange carrier(PIC) of the customer.
 17. The method according to claim 13, wherein theservice provider comprises a local preferred interexchange carrier(LPIC) of the customer.
 18. The method according to claim 13, whereinthe request is sent by the service provider.
 19. The method according toclaim 13, wherein the request is sent by a third party verificationvendor.
 20. A system for removing a protection preventing the change ofa service provider of a customer without authorization of the customer,comprising: a server that receives a request from a prospective serviceprovider of the customer to remove the protection, the request includinga link to an audio file of the customer authorizing removal of theprotection; a database that stores customer information and comparinginformation associated with the request against the stored customerinformation; a client that activates the link causing the audio file toplay; and a computer that generates an order to remove the protection.21. A method for effecting a change associated with an account of acustomer in which the change requires a verbal authorization of thecustomer, comprising: receiving a first request from a prospectiveservice provider to effect the change on the customer's account;notifying the prospective service provider that the change will not beeffected without verbal authorization of the customer; receiving asecond request from the prospective service provider to effect thechange on the customer's account, the second request including ahyperlink associated with an audio file containing a customer'sauthorization to the change; referencing the audio file by thehyperlink; determining whether to effect the change; and effecting thechange when the determination indicates that the change should beeffected.